Monday, June 29, 2015

Sleeping Confession

Today is one of my last vacations days for the foreseeable future.  Many of the people I talk to think that my job as an academic librarian is easier in the summer due to the light load of students, but instead summer is a crazy busy time. This is mostly due to the fact that we librarians are too busy during the school year to get any projects completed.  The summer is a crazy time to do all the planning for the upcoming semesters and take all the vacation time you have to "use or loose" by July 1 because you are too busy the rest of the year to take any time off. Even though it is not quite July yet, I feel summer is almost over and school will be starting. With school starting, my vacation time follows the elementary school calendar so I can take Columbus Day, Count Pulaski Day and all the other holidays off. And that leaves me with today.

I am happily spending today with my kids and my daughter's friend. We went to the children's museum and then to the park for lunch and playing.  Now we are back home and all I want to do is watch my son nap.


Untitled

He is so cute when napping. And this being the end of my summer vacation, I don't see what is so wrong with just watching him nap. I almost never get to take the time to just watch him. I love his rhythmic breathing, his attachment to his blanket, his golden curls. Watching him sleep is like time is standing still for just a few minutes. When he wakes up, he will be back to his mischievous self and that's okay too.

My little boy is quickly becoming a little toddler.  In just a few weeks he turns two (he already has that two-year-old attitude). And so I will spend some of my time today just hanging out beside him as he sleeps.
  

Thursday, June 18, 2015

I Will

Ten years ago on this very date I said, "I will" to my husband.



In ten years we have had two kids, moved 4 times, bought two houses and three vehicles, and adopted two dogs. I doubt that I can sum up the past ten years in any way so I will say this, I am glad I said 'I will.' Dear husband, my life has been better because of you. I think we can and will get better and better. Here's to all the years ahead.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Experience

I am the princess of volunteering.  I don't want to claim to be queen because that title belongs to my mom. I am still able to fill my time volunteering and finding more projects. Over the weekend I volunteered for something new, to be a running buddy.

The fitness director at my gym helps run a upper-elementary-aged running club for girls and she found out that I run "fast."  In no way want do I claim that I am fast.  I am faster that I used to be, but not "fast."  I am usually middle of the pack in just about every race.  My goal is to be in the top 50% of finishers and I usually am with my 8-9 minute miles.  The fitness director asked me to be a running buddy for an upcoming race. As luck would have it, I was already registered for the race and happen to be a sucker for volunteering.  She especially needed volunteers to run with the girls that were too fast for their parents. As a running buddy, I would run along side a girl as she ran her race and help her if any issues came up. I agreed as getting girls to run is important to me. On race day, I was paired with an entering-6th grade girl who had completed two 5ks before, one in 42 minutes and one in 38 minutes, but she told me she can run a 8-9 minute mile.  I was skeptical.       

I may have mentioned before that I am competitive.  And while I am not fast enough to really compete in races, I always compete with myself or I pick a random person from the crowd and tell myself to beat them. So agreeing to not race in this race was a big step in running humility for me.  Just a few weeks ago at another 5k, I praised my friend for running with her daughter, sacrificing her race for her daughter. I told her I wasn't sure I could do it. Could I really give up racing myself to help someone else?

Back to be being skeptical at the beginning of this past Saturday's race, I decided that I would go at whatever pace my running buddy was comfortable with. I swallowed my running pride. We started with a short warm up.  This is also a new phenomenon for me, I never warmed-up for races.  Watching the runners before the race warm-up used to make me laugh. Then this spring, I at my two indoor triathlons I realized how much faster I can run when my muscles were warm. So I've taken to a bit of light jogging before a race in the past few months. I will say it is helping the way I feel at the beginning of a race.  I was happy to relay this information to my running buddy. And then I told her what I know about running.

Throughout the entire race I told her what I was thinking about the course and how to run. I have never thought of myself as a running coach or even having that much knowledge about running, but it dawned on me as I told my running buddy how to attack a hill, that I have over 20 years of running experience. There a few things I can say I have over 20 years of experience in doing. I started running in 6th grade, just like her and apparently, I know what I am doing.  Or at least I think I know what I am doing. Either way, there is a 6th grader in Washington, IL that PRed at 28:50. That is 10 minutes faster than her previous 5k!

I stayed with her the whole way and encouraged her.  I taught her how to drink from a cup while running, how to run hills, how to pace, pros and cons of sunglasses and hats/visors, and most importantly how to have fun running. She even said it didn't feel like we ran that far. As we sprinted to the finish, a gentleman I know from church tried to beat me, so I had to leave my running buddy 1 second behind me to beat him. I may have been able to forgo my racing time to stay with my buddy, but there was no way I was letting him beat me.  So I may have some humility to work on.

How are you working on your humility?